Her Eyes Like Silver
by Chelty-chan and YeahWhatever12
Summary: It was supposed to be an ordinary season; then the unimaginable happened: Hinata started finding love letters and special gifts in her locker... With her friends hot on her secret admirer's trail, a major crush and an overprotective bro to deal with, sanity (and staying conscious) just got a lot harder. AU. NaruHina.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! This fic is collaboration with Myomi-chan, we sincerely hope you enjoy it! Please review!**

…

Sports season was always eventful for the students of Konoha high school, but that season that changed the lives of most of its students would always be remembered by those it affected, especially one Hinata Hyuuga.

It started like any other season: the fixtures were set and the teams were practicing as hard as they could, and they were pumped up. One could practically feel the school spirit pulsing through the school, as did Hinata as she strolled down the hallway. It was a Monday; like any other, she had ridden to school with her older brother in his car, on the insistence that it was not safe to take the bus or walk to school given who they were. She sighed as she recalled this. She was Hinata Hyuuga, daughter of Hiashi Hyuuga, head of one of the town's most successful banks, a fact her overprotective brother, Neji Hyuuga, told her not to forget could endanger her life. But Hinata knew her brother insisted that he had to drive her to school not because she could be abducted, but because he did not want any of the perverted high school boys anywhere near her.

He was extremely protective, to say the least.

Hinata sighed again, lost in thought, as she approached her friends, who were huddled at their lockers. Her thoughts were interrupted by the loud argument that her two best friends, Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno, were having.

'Not again', she sighed as she thought to herself. 'I'm starting to wonder how we manage to come up with game strategies with these two ever arguing.' Ino and Sakura were the co-captains of the school's girl's netball team, which Hinata was a member of. The only reason the team had two captains was because no one was willing to tell either girl the other was captain. Frankly, the two girls could get pretty scary sometimes.

"No! It's thanks to ME that we won the championship last season, so I should come up with the strategies this season, too!" Ino shouted.

"Oh, please! I scored the winning shot AND broke the tie in the final game, so I should come up with the strategies, because yours failed and we would have lost if it weren't for my quick thinking and winning shot!" Sakura shot back, turning her back on Ino and crossing her arms smugly across her chest, much to the annoyance of Ino, who clenched her fists at her sides, veins popping up on her blonde head as she glared at her pink-haired co-captain.

Hinata tried to stop the argument and reason with them, "Um, come on girls…w-we all contributed to the victory…it was a team victory thanks to Ino's strategy and Sakura's shot and the team's defense and attacks…" But her words were drowned out by the two girls who were screaming at each other, both very red in the face now. She sighed and turned away from them to open her locker and put away the books she wouldn't need until after lunch. She then headed off to home room, leaving her two best friends in the hallway still arguing, their shouts of 'Ino pig' and 'giant forehead' slowly fading behind her as she once again got lost in her thoughts. The girls were still going at it, the argument nearly escalating into a full blown fight, but it was a scene that surprised no one; it was like this every morning after all, the girls would argue then run flustered to class after realizing that they were the only ones left in the hallways since everyone had already left for class, fighting at the door to get in first.

…

The bell rang, signaling the end of home room. Hinata sighed as she picked up her bag, frowning when all her books fell out. She sighed and squatted as she began to collect her books and papers that were now scattered all over the floor. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice when someone squatted before her to help her pick up her books.

"Hey Hinata…" At the mention of her name in an all too familiar voice she glanced up, her eyes widening as she recognized one of her brother's friends and her long-time crush, Uzumaki Naruto.

"AH! N-Naruto! U-uh, w-what are you d-doing here…." She stuttered.

"Weell, unless I got lost again, I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to have my English class here", he said smiling at her. "R-right, well, you don't have t-to help me pi-", she started, trying to stop him from picking up her books but he cut her off.

"Nah, it's okay, I want to, and besides, your brother would kill me if he found out I would not help you in your 'time of need', ya know?" he joked with a lopsided grin that made Hinata's heart flutter as she noted how his blue eyes sparkled when he smiled at her, blushing as she got lost in the blue pools that were looking at her. 'His eyes are the colour of the sky in spring…' she sighed.

"Hinata, are you okay?" he asked with concern. "Your face was turning red and you stopped moving..."

"Y-yeah I'm o-okay", she said quickly, blushing furiously.

"Are you sure, you look kinda faint to me…" he said, closely looking at her face, causing her face to turn a new kind of red at how close he was to her. She quickly averted her gaze to the ground, trying to quickly gather the rest of her papers so she could leave the classroom, which was suddenly too hot for her liking. "Oh that's a nice bracelet you got there."

Naruto's voice brought her out of her thoughts again. She glanced down at her wrist to look at the silver bracelet she had gotten for her birthday the previous year. It had her name on it and sparkled whenever the light hit it. "It suits you," Naruto commented as he peered at it.

"Th-thank you," she said as they both stood.

"Oh, here, you forgot your algebra notebook..." Naruto started, reaching for the book at the same time Hinata reached for it. Hinata gasped when their fingers brushed each other's, pulling away as something akin to an electric shock ran up her spine.

"U-um, I h-have to g-go now, you know c-class…I'm l-late for c-class, bye!" she stammered as she quickly backed out of the room, running off to her next class, leaving a very confused Naruto in the classroom.

'What's up with her?' he wondered to himself.

"Oi, dobe, you're blocking my seat." Naruto jumped, turning to see his arch rival, and frenemy, Uchiha Sasuke.

"Temeh, ever heard of excusing yourself?" he snapped back. 'Man, where did he come from, I didn't hear him! Too creepy.' But upon looking around he noticed that the class was already full and his friends and students alike were taking their seats.

Sasuke's voice interrupted his thoughts again. "That would require me to be courteous to you, and courtesy is something I do not think a Neanderthal like you could possibly understand," Sasuke replied, coolly walking around Naruto and taking his seat without so much as sparing the blonde a second glance, purposefully ignoring the annoyance and irritation rolling off of the blonde in waves. Naruto was about to retort, when the teacher entered the class. 'Temeh' he angrily thought to himself as he sat next to his pal, Shikamaru Nara, who just turned his head to the side, leaning back in his chair and muttering under his breath about troublesome friends and teachers ruining his morning when he could have been napping peacefully…

…

Soccer practice was going as it usually did, starting with the team's coach, Hatake Kakashi, being over half an hour late.

"Sorry guys", he said smiling good naturedly, "I found a stray bunny and I just had to find it a good home becau-"

"LIAR!" Naruto interrupted with a shout. "You probably just went off to buy more of that perverted manga you're always reading, it's a wonder we even manage to win the championship! It's all thanks to my skill really, otherwise we wouldn't even have made it this far!" he said, proudly crossing his arms across his chest. Sasuke coolly interrupted the rant as Naruto was getting lost in his own self-praise, his voice laced with annoyance.

"Everyone knows our win was thanks to Neji's strategy, so please spare everyone your idiotic rant, dobe."

"Yeah, you almost cost us the championship when you messed up the cross kick just before the half-time whistle," his friend and the team's goalie, Kiba Inuzuka, chimed in.

"Shut up dog-breath, no one asked you or the temeh for your opinions," Naruto grumbled irritably.

"Moving on," snapped Kakashi to get their attention back. "Alright team, we were victorious last season and nothing is going to stand in our way this season." The boys cheered at this, Naruto being loudest, earning him an annoyed scowl from Sasuke and an amused one from Neji.

"Now," Kakashi continued after the team settled, "we will do some drills to get warmed up." Some boys grumbled at this, Shikamaru complaining about how troublesome practice would be. "I will announce everyone's positions for our first game next weekend after practice ends. Okay, 5 laps around the pitch, then 20 sit-ups, 20 push-ups and 20 knee jumps. After those, passing, dribbling and stealing drills. Go!" Kakashi shouted as he pulled out his favourite manga to read. "Icha Icha paradise, I've been waiting for this volume for weeks!" he said with a perverted glint in his eye.

…

After a long and tiring afternoon, full of running laps, sit-ups and push-ups, the exhausted team huddled around their coach to hear who was assigned which position.

"Hmmm, you guys look exhausted," Kakashi commented with a chuckle, as the teens sat panting at his feet.

"Of course we're exhausted! You made us do all those exercises!" Naruto shouted, immediately annoying Sasuke who was sitting next to him.

"Quit complaining about everything dobe, it's called exercise and practice for a reason," he snapped, then continued, his voice teasing, "Then again, I guess I shouldn't expect you to keep up, lazy," he said smirking.

"Why you- " Naruto started, before Kakashi interrupted him, irritated.

"Enough, you two!" Both teens glared at each other but said nothing more. Satisfied that he had everyone's attention again, Kakashi continued speaking. "Now where was i? Ah, yes, I have here the list of positions you all will be playing in next week's game against Suna high school. Okay, Kiba will be the goalie as usual; our defenders will be Tesla, Adam, Chad and Akan. Midfield we have Sai, Shikamaru and Naruto and Sasuke as strikers, and Neji will wear the captain band," he concluded, flipping back the papers on his clipboard.

"What, midfield? How troublesome…" Shikamaru complained. "Can't I be on the bench coach?" His complaints however were drowned out by Naruto's really loud celebration.

"Alright! Striker! Yes! This is my chance to show my skills!" His celebration continued, much to his team's annoyance. Shikamaru and Sasuke muttered under their breath about 'troublesome teammates' and 'annoying dobes'.

…

After the final bell rang, students spilled out of their classes, hurrying off to meet friends to walk home with, or chatting animatedly in the hallways at their lockers. Hinata let out a sigh of relief at the day's end. She walked slowly towards her locker where Sakura, Ino and Tenten were waiting for her, all looking very excited about something. She warily approached them, wondering what they were so excited about.

"Hinata! You are not going to believe this! Check out what's outside your locker!" Ino squealed as she pulled Hinata towards her locker.

"Ino, relax, it's not going anywhere," Tenten chastised, looking pitying Hinata who was rubbing her now released arm.

"Ow, Ino that hur-", but Hinata didn't finish her statement, as she noticed what had excited the girls.

There, through the vents of her locker, was one long stemmed, fully bloomed, blood-red rose. Almost in a trance-like state, Hinata moved to open her locker. When it opened, her eyes widened when she noticed the little white gift bag that sat on top of her books. A folded card leant next to it. On it, only a single sentence was written.

"It will look exquisite on your beautiful skin."

Inside the bag, there was a box, displaying a gorgeous golden necklace, with a pendant with the initial N.

At this point, Hinata was aware of only three things: her racing heart, the face that she felt really light-headed, and the non-stop squealing of Ino and Sakura behind her.

"A love letter!" squeaked Ino, diving to grab the note from Hinata's hands. She read it softly and dramatically, Sakura and Tenten pressing close on either side. After finishing, Ino shouted happily as Sakura squealed again and pulled a stunned Hinata into a hug. Tenten plucked the rose from Hinata's hand, carefully scrutinizing it.

"You have a secret admirer!" Sakura declared, releasing Hinata. The young Hyuuga stumbled, trying to wrap her mind around things. Everything was a blur; everything except the startlingly red rose and the pure white of the bag and the paper. In a daze, Hinata lifted the necklace out of the box, holding it up to the fluorescent lights. They reflected off its gold surface, creating a shimmery effect that three light across the hallway like disco lights on a floor. Her friends 'ooh'ed and 'ahh'ed at the sight, but Hinata still did not utter a sound, scared that it could all be a dream.

"Wow, is that real gold?" The words were quickly followed by a whistle, and Hinata snapped her head down to meet Inuzuka Kiba's curious gaze.

"I-I think so," Hinata confessed; this elicited a squeal from Tenten this time, who snatched the necklace from Hinata's hand, running a finger delicately over the surface. "I-It was in my locker."

Ino passed Kiba the card. He frowned as he read it carefully.

Kiba was one of Hinata's best friends. She had known him since they were young children, and all through their elementary shook days, they (along with Aburame Shino) had been an inseparable team of three, from playing on the playground to working on class projects. Hinata knew that if anyone could be trusted, it was him.

"Do you know who gave it to her?" Tenten asked, spinning the golden chain on her index finger. It whirred quickly.

"The initial is an N," Sakura said helpfully. "Maybe it wa-"

"Yeah, I think so," Kiba said. He leaned closer to the card, sniffing it. He scrunched his nose up, as if repulsed. "Yeah, it's definitely HIM. Only HE would..." Kiba shook his head.

"Who?" Ino asked impatiently. Tenten had passed her the rose, and she twirled it between her fingers. "Who put it in there?"

Kiba passed the note back to Hinata, who slipped it into the gift bag. Hinata saw his expression, and realized he was thinking carefully.

"I just don't get why HE would..." Kiba mumbled to himself, then straightened up, intending to address the group at large. "Okay, so it smelled like S-"

"Hinata!" Everyone turned to see Neji barreling down the hallway. "We must go now!"

Quickly grabbing the necklace from Tenten, Hinata stuffed the white bag into her backpack so Neji wouldn't ask any questions. Sakura and Ino glared at Neji, who ignored them. Tenten raised an eyebrow at him.

"What's the rush?" she asked.

"We must hurry home," Neji explained, taking Hinata's arm. "We have lots of homework, and YOU-" he turned his attention to his sister "-need to bring your B in Chemistry up."

Hinata waved to her friends as Neji dragged her away. She sighed, her hand reaching back to touch her backpack, where she knew the necklace was hidden away.

'I wonder who sent it?' she thought, her heart pounding excitedly as she walked along. Her heart leaped at the thought of having a secret admirer. 'I wonder if I know him?'

A flash of deep blue eyes and a peal of bright, loud laughter bounced around in her mind for the remainder of the day.

**Author's notes**:

**Myomi-Chan**: **So chelty-chan and I came up with this a long time ago, but I procrastinated on it until now. Doesn't our writing flow so well together?! As usual, I was amazed by Chelty's creativity and wondrous writing! :D I hope you all enjoyed our collab!**

**Chelty-chan: yeah you can all thank Myomi for the detail! I basically only helped with coming up with the plot, she did most of the heavy lifting, Isn't she the awesomest writer evaaaaar? **

**Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone! SUPER sorry for the late update! My laptop was being dimb, BUT, now its fixed and everything is A o-kay! **

**Without further ado chapter 2! *hey that rhymed* **

**Disclaimer: yeah, I forgot this thing last chapter…whoops, yeeeah, we own nothing but our plot, the characters and all else belong to Kishimoto-sensei!****  
**

* * *

BRINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG.

Hinata stirred at the sound of her alarm. After blinking slowly for a few seconds, she reached out to her nightstand and turned it off. She slowly rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling as she waited for her sleep-muddled mind to awaken fully.

'That was a weird dream…' she thought groggily, not knowing whether to laugh, scoff or be depressed at the thought. 'There is no way I could have a secret admirer…' she thought somberly. Suddenly feeling tired and sleepy again, she rolled over again and stuffed her face into her pillow, deciding she could use a few more minutes of sleep.

"SIIIIIIS!"

There goes that plan.

"SIIIIIS!"

Hinata was already sitting up by the time her sister barged in. She wasn't surprised in the least. This happened every morning; everyone else, everyone being her brother, parents and the servants, was already awake by now, the shouting in the hall not surprising or disturbing, albeit a little annoying, but not odd…not in the Hyuuga household, anyway.

"What is it, Hanabi…?" Hinata asked softly, barely managing to suppress a yawn, even though she knew already what her sister wanted. Hanabi frowned at her from the foot of her bed. She had already showered, judging from her already done hair, but she was still in her pink bathrobe. Hinata sighed inwardly; she found it disconcerting that her younger sister, scratch that…everyone, everyone in the house woke up earlier than she did. In fact, she was pretty sure she was the only one that still depended on an alarm clock to wake up on time.

"You still haven't showered yet." She stated as she frowned disapprovingly. After getting a sheepish smile from her, Hanabi sighed and shook her head, and then her excitement was back as she pranced around the bed energetically, too energetically for a 13 year old in the morning in Hinata's opinion, to stand at the side of Hinata's bed as she remembered why she had barged in in the first place.

"Which one?" she asked, like she always did, holding up two outfits, which in Hinata's opinion, didn't look that different.

"The one on the left…"

Hanabi dropped her clothes on the bed and heaved a sigh as she sat next to her sister. "Okay, what's bugging you?"

Hinata's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "N-Nothing…I'm fine."

"Reeeally?" Hanabi drawled as she raised an eyebrow. "You know you can't fool me sis, you're distracted, spill." Hinata smiled affectionately at her and shook her head lightly.

"Really, I'm fine, don't worry about it Hanabi." Hinata smiled and patted her sister's arm tenderly before getting up and out of bed. "So…what day is it today?" she asked as she stretched, knowing that Hanabi would know what she was talking about. She smiled when her little sister groaned, as she always did.

"Day 28…" she said bitterly, and then brightened, "but no worries, today for sure! 'Operation: Make Konohamaru Realize He's Madly In Love With Me' will succeed!" she declared as she waved a determined fist, and then jumped off the bed to pick up the outfits she had thrown. "Okay, so which one? For reals this time," she added as she alternated holding each outfit in front of her form.

Hinata chuckled softly, "Really Hanabi, Konohamaru is still just a boy, he doesn't know what love is, he probably still thinks girls have cooties, and besides…I don't think an outfit is going to make him suddenly have an epiphany and make him want to pledge his undying love to you, you know."

Hanabi scowled and huffed, "Well, at least I'm trying something! When are YOU planning to do something about Naruto?" She smirked when the tell-tale blush appeared on her sister's face. "You've liked him since that day he said hi to you when he came over to play soccer with big brother and his friends…when you were in 4th grade." She pointed out, "It's been 6 years sis, I doubt he'll just wake up one day and decide he loves you, unless…you wear a super cute outfit that will MAKE him notice you and realize you're the girl of his dreams." She finished, crossing her arms as she smiled triumphantly. Hinata shook her head lightly again. Honestly, a thirteen year olds logic was one of life's mysteries that would never be fully understood.

"Hinata…" The two Hyuuga sisters shared a look at the sound of Neji's voice from the hall. "You better hurry if we hope to get to school on time. The sooner we get there, the more time we have to go over that Organic Chemistry worksheet you were assigned that's due today."

The sister barely managed to suppress their snickers at that. Apparently, Neji must have heard them because next they heard, "Oh, and Hanabi, Mom said to tell you that you better hurry too, Dad's almost done with breakfast and will probably leave for work soon, if you don't hurry, you're going to take the bus to school."

"Nooo! I haven't finished curling my hair yet!" she wailed as she yanked the door open and ran past a smirking Neji and stormed into her own room, kicking the door closed behind her. The smirk on Neji's face was immediately replaced by a frown when he noticed that Hinata was still in her pajamas. She smiled apologetically before closing the door in his face and running into her adjoining bathroom.

* * *

Thanks to her morning chat with Hanabi, Neji and Hinata were running a little late, which was why she was dangling a piece of toast in her mouth while packing some books and homework papers in her backpack as Neji backed his car out of the garage.

"If you and Hanabi didn't waste time chatting instead of getting ready, you would have had time to eat breakfast properly…fasten your seatbelt, Hinata," he admonished when he noticed that she had not done so yet. Hinata resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she mumbled an 'in a minute' around the toast in her mouth, as she opened her bag wider to make it easier to pack her textbooks.

She frowned when he stopped the car, obviously refusing to drive until her seatbelt had been buckled. She was about to tell him not to worry when she noticed something at the bottom of her backpack that made her teeth clench. Unknowingly taking a bite of the toast, it fell, and bounced off her lap and landed at her feet when she gasped, which made her choke and start a coughing fit when the piece of toast almost went into her windpipe. Alarmed, Neji reached over and patted her back as she coughed, trying to help her clear her airway. Hinata hastily zipped her pack and threw it at her feet, lest her brother should see the white gift bag she had forgotten to remove the previous night in it.

"I-I'm… fine", she gasped as she hastily buckled her belt. "Are you sure?" he asked worriedly. Hinata picked up the fallen and now inedible piece of toast and opened the window. "mmhmm, I'm sure" she mumbled as she turned in her seat, concentrating as she aimed for the trash can across the lawn, counting on her netball skills to make sure it went in. She couldn't help the light fluttering of happiness inside when the toast landed inside the trash can. The fluttering spread when she turned to find an impressed look on her brother's face.

"Have you been practicing?", he asked as he put the car back in drive. "Mmhmm" she nodded, "the team plans to end the season retaining our championship. I don't want to hold them back, so I've been practicing."

He frowned at her and shook his head disapprovingly, "You don't give yourself enough credit, Hinata. You are as much to thank for the win last season as the rest of the team", he said as he turned the car into the street. "You need to have more confidence in yourself."

A sheepish smile was all he got for a response.

* * *

The Hyuuga siblings were happy to note that the bell for homeroom hadn't rung yet as they walked through the doors and walked down the packed hallway to their lockers.

"It looks like we won't have time to go over your worksheet, but I'm confident everything is fine and all the answers are correct," he said as they stopped at her locker.

"Thanks again for helping me with that." She said as he nodded and smiled, relief washing over her when she noticed the distinct lack of flowers in the locker vent; she wouldn't know how to explain that to Neji. She was surprised at the slight pang of disappointment she felt at that, too. Had she really been expecting to find another flower?

"No problem, I'll see you later, Hinata." Neji said absently as he walked away and towards his locker, where his friends were huddled waiting for him. On his way there, he passed Ino, Tenten, and Sakura, obviously on their way to Hinata's locker. He nodded at them in acknowledgement and shared a shy smile with Tenten just before their shoulders brushed when he passed them.

* * *

"Hey Hinata! Guess what I have for you!" Ino squealed as she opened her backpack after they had exchanged greetings. Hinata paused, the book she was about to put in her locker still in hand when she turned to the give the blonde-haired girl a puzzled look. She got an uneasy feeling when Sakura joined in the squealing while Tenten just sighed.

"Check it!" Ino cried as she whipped out two, note TWO pale blue starflowers.

Hinata's eyes widened slightly as she stared at the flowers that Ino had shoved in her face, and then quickly pushed them down and out of sight just as her brother turned to glance in their direction at Ino's exclamation.

"Calm down Ino…" Tenten hissed in the blonde's ear, having noticed that Neji had almost seen the flowers too. And it was not because she had been discreetly stealing glances at him, mind you. Of course not. Tenten would never do that.

Ino merely rolled her eyes as Sakura spoke for the first time. "We removed them from your locker vent so Neji wouldn't see them", she said, explaining why Ino was giving her flowers. "Was there anything in your locker?!" Ino asked with shining eyes.

"Um…no." Hinata replied, automatically backing up a step, when Ino got too close for comfort.

"Are you sure?!" she asked, a hint of hysteria in her voice.

"Y-Yeah..". Hinata exhaled in relief when Sakura yanked Ino back.

"Let her breathe, Pig." She said flatly, as she ignored the glare Ino was giving her. "Are you sure there's nothing Hinata? Check again," she added. Hinata turned back to her locker and looked around, rummaging through her notebooks and books.

"Nope, nothing", she said with a sheepish smile when she turned back to face them.

"Well, good thing you didn't break into her locker then, ey Ino?" Tenten remarked dryly. Hinata was pretty sure the blonde really had tried to break into her locker after seeing the flowers.

Just then, the bell rang; the teens groaned as Hinata shut her locker. They turned and started walking to the class where they had homeroom. Hinata sighed before hurrying to catch up with her friends.

What was the feeling she felt in the pit of her stomach? Sighing again, she entered class, putting her things down at her desk. It almost felt like disappointment...

She shook her head to clear her mind. It didn't matter. For now, she opened her binder, pulled out her Organic Chemistry sheet, and reviewed the information quickly. The voices of her chattering friends and classmates died down as she focused.

No, she couldn't be disappointed. Not while she had to study, anyway.

* * *

Sighing for what felt like the bajillionth time that day, Hinata leaned against her locker, pressing her forehead against the cool surface and closing her eyes. Classes had been taxing, and there was netball practice after school, but Hinata relished her one precious moment of peace leaning against that locker.

Emphasis on one.

"Hinataaaaaaa!"

The Hyuga girl's eyes snapped open as she straightened, turning to face the blonde girl hurrying towards her through the waves of students leaving school. Ino's eyes were wide and excited, and she waved her hand vigorously to assure that Hinata saw her.

Although Hinata figured she would have to be blind to do that. Ino was one of those popular girls blessed with beauty, wit and confidence, and with her great fashion sense and boisterous personality, she stood out like a lemon among purple grapes.

"H-hey, Ino-"

"WEEEELL?!" Hands on hips, Ino had screeched to a stop before Hinata, eyes gleaming and honed in on Hinata's face. "Anything?"

It took Hinata a second to figure out what Ino referred to.

"Ah," she began, "I-I haven't opened it yet..."

Ino raised an eyebrow.

"Then do it now," replied the blonde. Her bright blue eyes moved to the locker. "And I can see it, too!" Excitedly, Ino pumped her fist in the air. "Heck yeah!"

"You've been spending way too much time with Sakura," a voice commented somewhat dryly from behind them.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

Ino and Hinata wheeled around to see Tenten and Sakura, teasingly punching each other's shoulders. Hinata sweat dropped while Ino clapped her hands to restore order.

"Listen to the team captain, please!" she said loudly. Sakura grimaced.

"Co-captain," she responded. Ino frowned. "You're a co-captain."

"But I'm the captain of the co-captains," she insisted, flipping her hair dramatically.

"Oh, that's rich!" Sakura rolled her eyes and laughed.

Before a catfight could break out, Hinata leaped between the girls hurriedly.

"L-Let's look in my locker!" she said. Her three friends gathered around her as she undid her lock and pulled the locker open. The metal contraption opened with a loud clink!

And atop a neatly-stacked pile of books (which Hinata KNEW had not been so meticulously ordered before) sat a small white gift bag.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!"

Hinata felt as if her ears might burst; Ino, Tenten, and Sakura had all squealed as one, and together they made most of the student body stop in their tracks and stare. Hinata hastily closed her locker, smiling nervously at the passersby as her friends antics began to die down.

"Wait, what's inside it?" Ino's hand reached out and practically shoved Hinata away as she swung the locker open. She snatched the bag and pulled it wide open to peer inside. Tenten and Sakura leaned over and shot each other pointed looks. Ino's grin grew, and she handed the bag to Hinata.

"Open it!" she exclaimed. Hinata looked inside and saw (this time) a blue jewelry case, the exact shade of the flowers she'd received, along with a blue envelope. She pulled the case out and (after making sure Neji was nowhere in sight) snapped the lid open.

Inside were a pair of earrings.

Hinata silently handed the good over to a screeching Ino, and reached in and pulled the envelope out. Her heart beat wildly in her chest while it opened. She smoothed the letter and began to read quietly to herself. Again, a single sentence graced the white paper.

These will bring attention to the beauty of your porcelain face.

Her heart skipped a beat or two.

"Again! It's here again!" Hinata looked up from the letter to see Ino dangling an earring in each hand. "The N!" Ino turned the earrings around and put them close to Hinata's face.

Engraved on the backs of each were, indeed, N's. Just like the necklace. Hinata flushed.

'So it wasn't a dream,' she thought to herself. She clutched the letter to her chest. 'I do have a secret admirer!'

Tenten saw the letter and stretched out her hand.

"Can I see?" Hinata nodded and gave Tenten the letter. Ino and Sakura crowded around her while she read aloud dramatically.

Hinata turned back to her locker, intending to pack up, but someone tapped her shoulder. She swiveled and came face-to-face with Shino.

Despite his sunglasses, Hinata could read him like a book, so she immediately sensed his concern. She smiles reassuringly at him.

"It's nothing," she said dismissively. His eyebrow arched and she sighed. "I know, I know, but..." She trailed off, considering her next words carefully. "Don't tell Neji, b-but someone's been leaving secret a-admirer notes in m-my locker."

Shino's eyebrows both went up at this, and Hinata laughed. It was odd to see Shino so openly expressing himself, even if all that was visible were his eyebrows. Usually she had to gauge his feelings based on the aura he carried.

"Do you know who?" he asked. Hinata opened her mouth to reply, and then frowned.

"Well... I..."

"No!" Sakura entered the conversation, flinging an arm across Hinata's shoulder and smiling widely at Shino.

'Uh-oh', Hinata thought.

"But," Sakura drawled, "I know someone who could find out." She gave Shino a pointed look.

He said nothing, and Sakura pouted.

"Please?" interjected Ino, also wrapping an arm around Hinata. Tenten joined in, putting her head atop the Hyuuga's.

"It'll help a lot," she added, grinning from ear to ear.

Shino had no choice but to agree; the unsaid threats glinting in their eyes were obvious, and he did not have a death wish. Besides, it was to help his dear friend Hinata. He nodded, reaching out a hand. Ino dropped the letter and the blue box in his palm, and he carefully examined the objects.

It was at this point that Hinata realized two things:

1) They were late to netball practice, and

2) Neji was barreling down the hallway towards them... No doubt to ensure Hinata was kept on schedule and on track.

"T-Tell us what you find out tomorrow, Shino," Hinata said quickly, waving at Neji to slow down and grabbing her backpack. "Kiba's also looking into it." With that, she was off to intercept her brother before he was made aware of the gifts.

In all honesty, she knew she should tell him about them, as well as the letters, but she somehow knew he would disapprove.

And even stranger, she didn't want him to know.

'This is my secret', she thought vehemently to herself as she came to rest in front of Neji. 'This is my secret admirer.'

Before Neji could begin to berate her, Ino, Sakura, and Tenten were there, dragging her away to go practice.

She sighed again, but this time, in a contented way. She wasn't disappointed anymore.

Whoever it was who kept giving her gifts, she wanted to know desperately.

And in a small part of her heart, she wondered if it was the boy she'd been in love with for years.

* * *

**Author notes:**

**Chelty-chan: hey guys! Sorry again for the wait, blame me for procrastinating this time, hope you enjoyed this chapter and keep reviewing, cos I know Myomi loves reading those as much as I do, we love hearing (or rather reading XD) what you guys think, plus they help motivate us to update faster! Hope to see you all here next update! (-: XD**

**Myomi-chan: It wasn't just Chelty-chan. I promise you that XD and yes, please do review! Watches are cool, and faves are great, but it's the reviews that make my day! :) It's how I really feel connected to readers. So! Review please :3 See ya here next time! :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: We own nothing but our ideas…the characters and all else are Kishi-sensei's.**

**Thanks to all that reviewed! Enjoy!**

…

* * *

Hinata smiled as she breathed in the fresh morning air.

It was Wednesday, her favorite day of the week, besides Friday. She liked Friday because it meant two glorious Chemistry-free days were headed her way. Nevertheless, she admitted she loved Wednesdays more, her pace quickening as she headed for the training fields.

But the reason for her giddiness wasn't just that it was Wednesday: she had found three flowers in her locker vents when she stopped by to drop off her books before heading to the locker room to change.

It had been three pale pink Peonies today.

She wasn't surprised to find him there, training alone as he always did on Wednesday like she did. This was why she loved Wednesdays. She didn't know who or what was responsible, but she and Naruto shared the same free period on Wednesday morning, which they both used to practice their respective sports.

She smiled where she stood, watching him juggle the ball from foot to foot effortlessly, as she remembered the first time she had encountered him here on a morning much like this one, earlier in the school year before sports season had started.

* * *

**Flashback: 3 months ago.**

Hinata sighed as she slowly walked towards the school's training fields. Sports season was starting in a few months, her netball team had emerged the champions last season. But, in her opinion, she hadn't done much to help. Unlike her brother, who was the team captain and voted the playmaker every game, she just played an ordinary wing defense position and an occasional centre.

She had vowed to herself to do better and do her best not to hold her team back, which was why she had decided that, besides practicing at home and on the weekends, she would use her free period to get some practice in, too.

She sighed again as the fields came into view, and then shivered when a breeze blew past her, chilling her legs. She pulled down on her skirt, which did little to protect her from the cold. 'Okay, so now I know why there's a specific season for sports,' she thought somewhat sadly to herself; as she walked, head down, her feet walked of their own accord, as she had the way to the netball court memorized. She decided to just cross the soccer field to get there faster rather than having to walk all the way around i—

"Dang it!"

She froze. She'd know that voice anywhere.

Her eyes widened and her pulse quickened, her chilled limbs nothing but a distant memory as she saw none other than Naruto lining up another ball for what she assumed was a penalty kick, not more than a few feet from where she stood. 'How did I manage to walk so far across the field without noticing him there?' she wondered vaguely to herself.

"Come on!" he yelled, when the ball bounced off the goal post's beams. He growled in frustration and sank down on the grass.

Hinata debated whether or not to run back the way she had come, or go through with her plan to practice. The latter meant she would have to talk to him; obviously, she couldn't just ignore him. She stood there, a few feet from where he sat, still crippled in indecision.

"I know you're there, Hinata."

She flinched. 'How did he know? I didn't make a sound...' she wondered to herself.

As if reading her thoughts, he turned around to face her and unknowingly answered her unasked question. "It's your scent. The breeze carried it over. You smell like raspberries. No other girl… or guy really, has that scent that I know of."

"O-oh…um…"

Sensing her discomfort, Naruto chuckled nervously and waved his arms in front of himself, "I didn't mean it like that or anything…its nice, I like it. Is it like your shampoo or something?"

"Um..y-yeah, th-thanks." It was actually her body wash, but there was NO way she was going to tell HIM that.

"It's nice," he repeated, and then realizing that he had, he coughed awkwardly. "So, what are you doing out here at this time of the day...? And year, actually, no one comes out here this time of year."

Hinata chuckled a little. "Y-you're out here," she pointed out. He laughed, the sound causing butterflies to flutter in her stomach. 'I made him laugh…' she thought giddily.

"Yeah, I come out here every Wednesday morning to practice. What's your excuse?"

"O-Oh, I came out to practice t-too." She answered blushing slightly. He smiled at her.

"Good for you Hinata, that's very dedicated of you. But I guess I should have figured that's why you were out here, you're wearing your netball gear." He chuckled, gesturing to her uniform. He blushed and looked the other way when he noticed how short her skirt was.

He coughed awkwardly and stood up, brushing the grass away from his shorts to distract himself. "Well, I better let you practice then. I should be getting back to practicing myself."

Sad that their little chat was done, Hinata gave him a small smile and nodded before jogging away to the neighboring netball pitch.

Almost an hour later, Hinata walked away from the netball field, a shower before her next class the only thing in mind. She was a little surprised to find that Naruto was still practicing, this time dribbling the ball around a line of cones.

She wasn't surprised, however, when he stopped and turned to face her. She blushed, from both his gaze and the knowledge that her 'scent,' as he had put it, was now probably half-sweat.

"Oh hey Hinata, you done already?"

She chuckled. "Uh…its b-been about an hour already, I have t-to leave n-now if I don't want to be l-late for my next class."

"Oh, crud! Iruka-sensei's gonna kill me if I'm late for class again! See you later, Hinata!" he shouted over his shoulder as he ran off.

**End flashback**

* * *

She smiled again, as she had done back then. She had been pleasantly surprised to find him at the fields the following week, and now it was no longer a surprise for either of them to find the other here. Neither questioned how or why they shared the same free period, but were both glad for the other's company and the little chats they would occasionally have.

She wasn't surprised when he turned before she reached him, blushing when she thought about the reason he had given her a few months prior. She was, however, surprised to see that he looked dirtier and sweatier than she normally found him. 'He must be training harder since the season has started…'

"Mornin',' Hinata," he said cheerily, interrupting her inner musings. She smiled.

"Good morning, Naruto." She replied softly.

"Guess what?!" he suddenly asked eagerly.

"Uh…w-what?"

"I'll be playing a striker position for our first game this weekend! Isn't that great?!"

She smiled warmly. "Th-that's great. C-congratulations, Naruto."

He rubbed his nose awkwardly, and chuckled. "Yeah, thanks. That's why I'm practicing harder than usual, I don't wanna mess up this season." His eyes brightened as he snapped his head up to look at her. "So, what will you be playing?"

Hinata's smile faltered. "O-oh…um, well we don't have a game this weekend so positions won't be assigned until next week, probably."

"Oh well, I'm sure you'll do great, your stamina and aim have improved a whole lot you know." He said flashing a grin and a thumbs up.

"Eh? H-how do you k-know?"

He paused and blushed. "Uh, well sometimes I watch you practice when I break, so I've noticed your progress."

She blushed furiously, both from the fact that he watched her and from the fact that she did the same to him. After she was sure she was no longer in danger of passing out, she thanked him, and the two separated to practice.

They met up again an hour later, said their good byes, and went their separate ways to prepare for the next class.

…

* * *

Hinata sighed happily, a skip in her step as she headed to her locker to gather her books for class. Naruto had complimented her progress…and had been watching her practice. She fought hard not to squeal from happiness, choosing instead to smile widely as she dialed the combination to open her locker.

Her smile stretched wider when the scent of peonies invaded her nose as her locker swung open. She touched the three flowers, and then frowned when she noticed a note. It had probably been stuffed through the vent since it was crinkled. She picked it up and scanned it.

_**Girrrrl,**_

_**We found another flower after class and took it. Don't worry, Neji didn't see it, you're welcome! But where are you? We've looked everywhere. Come to think of it, Where DO you disappear to during free period? you've got explaining to do young lady!**_

_**Ino**_

Hinata froze. They had found a flower while she was gone? That could mean only one thing.

Naruto wasn't her secret admirer.

There was no way he could have put the flower there if he was out in the fields with her, not unless he had a clone or something. Highly unlikely.

She felt her heart drop into her stomach with a thud as she snapped her locker shut. She fought back the tears as she shuffled to her next class.

…

* * *

**Later that day.**

"Are you sure?" Shino asked.

Kiba nodded, a frown on his face. "Yeah, there's no mistaking it, it was definitely his scent on the note and necklace. I'd know his pastey scent anywhere." He kicked at a pebble at his feet.

The two boys were standing near the bleachers on the abandoned soccer field. Shino had decided to meet with Kiba to discuss Hinata's secret admirer situation. They both knew Hinata very well, and knew she didn't normally deal with things like this very well. It wouldn't end well if she raised her hopes too high only for them to be crushed and blown up in her face if it turned out not to be the person she was expecting.

Shino's eyebrows pulled down together as he thought it over. Hinata had said that she and the girls had found the notes and gifts before and after school. Whoever this person was, he knew Hinata's schedule and got to school earlier than everyone else, and left after everyone else did. Only two guys fit the bill, and one was who Kiba had just mentioned. Shino's frown deepened as it occurred to him that the two were also the only ones that wrote or spoke the way the notes were written.

"Yeah, I know, it's buggin' me too." Kiba groused when he noticed Shino's eyebrows pull tighter together. "Why would that weirdo be stalking Hinata?"

"We can't conclude that it's him yet, Kiba. Let's observe him for a few days. We should also see what other clues we can find should he leave more notes and gifts in Hinata's locker."

Kiba nodded. "Okay, then, I'm going to hit the shower and go home before Mum flips out on me again. Can I hitch a ride with you? Sis is working late today so she won't be able to pick me up."

Shino nodded and followed Kiba as they walked back to the school buildings.

…

* * *

"Hinataaaaaa!"

Said girl froze, sighing automatically. She did NOT feel like dealing with her friends right now. Unfortunately for her, the universe had other plans. Regardless of her want to be alone and wallow in her despair of finding out that Naruto wasn't her secret admirer, she still had to endure practice.

She knew she shouldn't have dared to hope. But after the past three months, could she really be blamed for hoping? She sighed again when Ino and Sakura both hollered her name again, turning heads in the hallway they were racing down. Dwelling on it now wouldn't help things, or change anything for that matter, she decided somberly as her friends skidded to a stop in front of her.

"Hinata! Where have you been?!" Ino screeched after catching her breath.

"Yeah! We were worried sick!" Sakura added.

"Um…w-well…"

"Actually, hold that thought, did you get my note?" Ino cut in.

"Y-yeah…I saw it before –"

"Great! I'll give you the flower after practice. It was a Peony today!" she squealed.

"I love peonies!" a new voice squealed.

The trio turned to see Tenten, looking sheepish and…blushing.

"Where have you been?" Ino and Sakura simultaneously asked suspiciously.

"U-uh….w-well.." Tenten's face became redder at Ino's next words.

"She probably went to stalk Neji again." She said airily.

"W-what? I did NOT!" She spluttered, "I actually w-went t-to..to -"

"Give it a rest Tenten; we all know you have a thing for him." Sakura cut in, rolling her eyes.

Tenten sighed in defeat, and then pouted but said nothing more. Sakura flinched when Ino clapped her hands to get their attention. "Moving on –"

"Will you stop doing that!" she snapped. "For the last time, you are NOT in charge!"

"Give it a rest, Sakura." Tenten said, smirking when a vein popped on said girl's head.

"Anyway," Ino continued, "We seriously need to find out who this mystery guy is, ideas? We should at least narrow it down to a list or something."

"Remove Naruto from that list. It's definitely not him." Hinata sighed.

The girls gasped in shock, making Hinata flinch. 'Uh oh, why did I just say that?'

"How are you so sure?" Ino asked suspiciously.

Hinata sweat dropped. "U-um…because I w-was with him w-when t-today's flower w-was planted?"

Then, all hell broke loose.

…

* * *

Hinata panted, standing in her uniform outside. After enduring countless questions and Sakura-Ino squeals, Hinata had then been dragged to netball practice. She should have been occupied, but during practice her mind had drifted further away from the game and more into wallowing in despair.

She had known all along that it wouldn't have been Naruto. She had told herself not to get her hopes up. Yet here she was, heartbroken that the one shoving flowers and gifts into her locker wasn't the boy she'd loved since forever.

"Oi!" Ino's voice pierced Hinata's thoughts, snapping her back to reality. "Hinata, what planet are you on?"

"S-Sorry," she managed, shifting back into a ready stance. She was playing her usual position: Wing defense. Her job was simple: stop the opponents from stopping her girls. Hinata was by no means fierce (she Knew this all too well), but her dedication to her teammates and friends always managed to bring out the best in her.

And, as Sakura liked to say, "You're best is bad!"

Hinata, of course, preferred to refer to it as her team spirit, but she couldn't deny that even she, as kind and understanding and shy as she was, was extremely competitive. If she had to play tough to help her friends on the field, then so be it. During the heat of a game, split-second decisions changed everything, and Hinata made sure those decisions counted.

"Let's get back to it," Ino called from her position. "Sakura, be sure to keep your options open! You're centre; if the opponents decide to block who you planned on passing to, what'll you do?"

Sakura, eyes quickly scanning her surroundings, whirled around and met Hinata's gaze. A silent message passed between them, and Sakura passed quickly to Hinata.

Time slowed as she caught the ball. She took a step forward, white eyes scanning the area for a next pass, while Ino's directions buzzed in the background. Hinata exhaled.

One.

She narrowed her eyes and focused on Tenten, who was playing Wing Attack. Their eyes met.

Two.

Hinata lifted her arms, preparing, aiming.

Three.

The ball soared over Sakura's head and into Tenten's outstretched hands. Tenten tossed and scored as Hinata caught her breath.

_**'I'm sure you'll do great, your stamina and aim have improved a whole lot you know.'**_

Naruto's words echoed in her mind as Sakura and Ino cheered happily.

"Nice, Hinata!" Ino called approvingly. "Everyone, I think we can call it a day!" As one, the team sighed in relief, glad to be finished at last. The practice session today had been grueling; Ino had thrown strategy after strategy at them, making sure they were prepared for breaches in their defense and attack plans. "I have some exciting news!"

"WE have exciting news," Sakura corrected as the girls gathered around Ino.

"Whatever," Tenten said smartly, rolling her eyes.

"Okay," Sakura said, ignoring Tenten's jab, "Quick question: Does everyone have something nice they can wear?" The girls eyes widened, and Sakura and Ino grinned.

"Ladies," Ino said jubilantly, "We're going to the Konoha High Sports Gala!"

…

* * *

**Myomi-chan: Partaaaaayyyyyy! XD I hope you're all looking forward to the next chapter as much as we are! X3 It's Chelty-chan's idea. :) Review! It makes my heart flutter! (Jk... Maybe.) **

**Chelty-chan: ooooooh! I am definitely looking forward to it! XD Reviews make me smile…even simple ones that said 'update soon'. Yeah, I got the idea cos my university had a sports gala too! I won the award for 'Best Defender' ^^. I play soccer btw! Yay! Congratulate me..JK..no seriously.**

**Please review,**

**Hugs and much love!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: We own nothing but our own ideas, we only borrow Kishi-sensei's characters and place them in these situations for our own and your amusement, no profit whatsoever.**

**Stars for our awesome readers and reviewers that keep up with our story! You guys are …dazzling XD**

* * *

"Awesome job at practice today, Hinata." Tenten said as she rubbed her hair with a towel. "Have you been practicing your shots?"

The Team had hit the showers after an intense practice session. Hinata and Tenten were drying their hair, having just gotten out of the showers. They had no idea where Ino and Sakura were, the knowledge making Hinata feel uneasy and on edge. 'I have a bad feeling about this'. She pushed that thought aside as she turned to smile at Tenten.

"Mmhmm, thanks, you did great too, Tenten. Have you and Anna been practicing those defense tactics you mentioned the other day?"

"Yeah, but it will be a while before we can perfect the -"

"HINATAAAAAAA!"

The two girls turned to see Sakura running towards them, turning heads in the huge bathroom as she made a beeline for the surprised and wary girls.

She skidded to a stop in front of them, leaning on her knees and panting heavily, and then shot up and latched onto the nearest arm, which unfortunately happened to be Hinata's.

"Where's Ino?!" she screeched urgently.

"W-we don't know…we h-haven't seen her s-since practice ended, and that was o-over an hour ago." Hinata stammered, not liking having her personal space invaded.

Tenten, rescuing Hinata, pulled the distraught girl off her and shook her shoulders slightly. "Sakura, relax, breathe…what happened?"

After several deep breaths, she calmed slightly, emphasis on slightly. "News about Hinata's secret admirer has gotten out and is all over the school! Everyone is talking about it!"

Tenten gasped. Hinata froze.

"Are you sure?" Tenten asked. Sakura nodded.

"It was obviously Ino that did this!" she huffed.

"Now, let's not jump to conclusions, Sakura," Tenten said calmly, "Ino wouldn't, I'm sure even she has limits."

"It was obviously Ino that did what?" the blonde-in-question asked suspiciously from behind her. The three girls turned to see Ino tapping her foot impatiently.

"Well? What did I so obviously do?" she questioned, raising a sleek eyebrow.

"You told everyone about Hinata's secret admirer!" Sakura shouted, pointing an accusing finger at her.

Ino scoffed and rolled her eyes. "No, I didn't."

"You see, I told you she wouldn't tell anyone." Tenten said with a smile, which fell at Ino's next words.

"No, I did tell some people, Tenten."

"AHA! I KNEW IT!" Sakura shouted. "How could you do that?!"

"Well, obviously I couldn't tell EVERYONE. Who knows how long that would take? I just told a few people, and they told everyone else." Ino scoffed, rolling her eyes as if that should have been obvious.

"That's not what I meant." Sakura bit out through clenched teeth. Tenten, knowing the usual peacemaker, Hinata, wouldn't be unfreezing from her spot anytime soon, decided to step in to prevent an impending argument.

"Uh, Ino? Don't you think you should have asked Hinata if she wanted anyone to know about this before telling the entire student body?" she cut in, discreetly placing a hand on Sakura's shoulder, ready to stop her should the argument escalate again.

"What? We want to know who it is, right? Well, the more people that know about it, the more people we have looking into it, AND the faster we get to find out who it is." Ino said airily as she flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. "It's been a whole DAY since the last note and gift. I'm tired of waiting to find out who it is. I figured she would want to know who he was before the gala next week."

The three girls blinked at her and then wondered when she had even showered, dressed, done her hair and make-up, and still found time to spread a rumor throughout the entire school in the hour since practice had ended. You had to hand it to the girl; she knew how to do her thing.

"Does Neji know about this?" Hinata suddenly asked, startling the others who seemed to have forgotten she was there.

Ino sighed and answered. "I don't know, probably. I didn't really take note of who knew and who didn't. Someone probably told him."

Hinata tried to focus on NOT hyperventilating. Neji was not supposed to find out…not yet anyway.

"Relax Hinata." Tenten said as she put a comforting hand on the pale girl's shoulder. "He probably doesn't even know yet. There's no need to panic."

"Yeah." Sakura added, snorting, "He probably would have hunted you down by now for an explanation if he knew."

"Mmhmm, well, we are in the girls' bathroom, I don't think he would just barge in here." Ino pointed out.

"Not helping you guys," Tenten sing-songed, sweat dropping when Hinata became paler. "It's okay Hinata, even if he knows, you can just tell Neji that its just a dumb rumor and make sure he doesn't see the notes or gifts. He doesn't listen to rumors anyway."

When the three girls looked at her strangely, questioning why and how she even knew that, Tenten just chuckled nervously as she scratched the back of her head sheepishly.

"Is this about him ignoring that one rumor that someone started about you and him dating?" Sakura asked suspiciously.

"Oh, Tenten, you still haven't gotten over it?" Ino snorted.

Tenten huffed. "Whatever! Look, we're straying from the topic at hand here. So, Neji won't be a problem, but now everyone knows, what happens when more than one person claims to be the mystery guy?"

"Guess I didn't think about that." Ino answered with a shrug.

Sakura and Tenten sighed and shook their heads.

"What?" Ino snapped. "It doesn't matter now anyway, and WHEN we do find out who it is, I can't wait for the big fat I told you SO!"

"Mhm, sure Ino, whatever," Sakura yawned, making the blonde frown, "anyway, that aside, what are we wearing to the gala?" she squealed, eyes shining, "I vote shopping spree on Friday after practice!"

"I second that!"

Hinata sighed, not hearing her friends anymore, could this day get any worse?

'And it had started off so great too…'

* * *

**Soccer practice, the next day.**

"Great job, boys," Kakashi said as he snapped his book shut. "I'd say we are more than ready to pulverize Suna on Saturday."

"Yeah, no thanks to you!" Naruto snapped. "You didn't do anything! You showed up over half an hour after practice started, and you spent the entire time with your nose buried in that book! If it weren't for Coach Yamato who knows where we would be."

Said deputy-coach chuckled nervously. "I suppose he has a point Kakashi, you could read less, and help me actually coach them."

"Hmmm," Kakashi mused as he stroked his chin thoughtfully, "Isn't it the deputy coach's job to help with the coaching?"

Yamato, along with a good number of the team, fell flat on their faces.

"Well," Kakashi said with his back to them as he walked off, "Practice is over, good work boys, see you all here, same time tomorrow."

"Oh sure, WE will be here at the same time tomorrow." Naruto muttered grudgingly under his breath.

He stood and started brushing the grass off his shorts, and then stopped abruptly when his ears caught the conversation some of his teammates were having.

"Yeah, I feel sorry for the poor sap, who knows what Neji will do to him when he finds out," Adam, a defender, was saying.

"Who knows what Neji will do to who?" Naruto asked curiously, as he sank down on the grass next to them.

"Dude, you didn't hear?"

"Hear what?"

"Some dude has been stalking Neji's sister."

"He's not stalking her," a new voice cut in. The group turned to see midfielder, Sai, walk up to them and take a seat next to them. "I think he is attempting to court her. Courting and stalking are two very different concepts, at least according to the dictionary."

Adam snorted. "The only court he's gonna go to is a legal one, either to sue Neji for the damage he'll receive, or to sign the restraining order that will be filed against him."

Naruto wasn't listening to them at this point. He was only vaguely aware of another boy going "Oooh! Nice one Adam!" and the two fist bumping.

"You're being oddly quiet about this." Sai commented, having noticed the blonde hadn't said a word yet.

"What? I have nothing to say on it."

Sai's brow furrowed. "That's odd, I was most certain you would have _something_ to say about it."

"Look, it's not that shocking, Hinata is an awesome girl. She's pretty, she's nice and she plays sports, it's normal for a guy to want to co-cou-…date her. I'd say she's probably psyched about it, girls like such stuff, don't they? Even those as painfully shy as Hinata, I guess…"

"Uh, dude, should you really be saying that, what if Neji hears you...?"

"Relax, Akan," Adam snorted, rolling his eyes, "Hyuuga left with Coach Yamato already."

"Why are you guys so scared of Neji, anyway?" Naruto asked, "He's a pretty cool guy, I think."

"Pssh, yeah to you, Sasuke, Sai, Kiba and Shino, maybe." Adam scoffed.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hyuuga only gives his stamp of approval on those he knows don't have an eye on his sister, aka you guys."

"I didn't know you had an interest in Hinata, Adam." Sai commented.

"Duh, who doesn't, the girl is hot."

"Shhh, Adam…"

"Give it a rest Akan, I told you Hyuuga isn't around…"

"Yeah, but…the bleachers have ears.."

"Whatever!" Adam snapped, irritated. "Anyway, whoever this guy is, he's really pulling out the stops, leaving jewelry and poetry in her locker."

"I was under the impression girls liked to receive gifts and be complimented," Sai commented. "This person must be well informed on the inner workings of the female mind."

"How do you guys even know all this?" Shikamaru droned lazily. "You sound like a bunch of girls gossiping." He yawned as he sat up from where he had been laying on his back staring up at the clouds drifting by during the 'discussion.'

"It's all over the school, how can you not know about it? Besides, I was just saying, whoever this guy is, he's either going to land one of the hottest girls in school…or he's just going to land in the hospital with a lot of broken bones."

"Oooh! Another good one! You're on fire today, dude!"

"You know it!" Adam hollered, annoying the others when the two started doing some weird secret handshake thing while making 'Tsss' fire noises.

"Do you guys have any idea who it could be?" a new voice asked. The group turned to see Kiba plopping down next to Shikamaru.

"Does everyone know about this but me?" Naruto asked.

"Hn. Of course, not everyone has the attention span the size of a pea like you, dobe." Sasuke answered as he sat next to Sai.

"Anyway," Kiba cut in, knowing the two would probably start arguing, "Do any of you know who it is or not?"

"They probably don't," Shikamaru, answered, plopping back onto his back, his attention returning to the drifting clouds. "They've just been gossiping, like girls. Nothing solid has been said here."

"Hey! We aren't gossiping!" Adam yelled, "We are just talking about one of the hottest girls in school, like any normal testosterone oozing male teenager would."

"I'm surprised you know what the word testosterone means and used it in a sentence correctly," Sai said.

"Maybe he's the one," Sasuke commented offhandedly, "He does talk about Hinata a lot."

"Hey, I just think she's hot, like most of the male student body does, it doesn't mean I'm going to go leaving some gold necklace and poetry in her locker." Adam scoffed.

"Adam.."

"Give it a rest, Akan."

"What's his problem?" Kiba asked, eyeing the boy with a nervous, constipated look on his face.

"Ugh, he's just scared Hyuuga will pound our faces in if he hears us, but like I said, he's not HERE!" Adam yelled the last part at the boy.

"Why would he pound only you two's faces in?" Sasuke asked, sounding bored and not really interested in the answer.

"Because, besides me, Akan and Shikamaru, only you guys and Shino are allowed anywhere near her without the threat of bodily harm…although technically Shikamaru doesn't count since he's too lazy to go after any girl."

"How did he get that?" Kiba sneered pointedly looking at Sai, "pssh, I wonder how you guys feel, must be insulting, him passing the test and you guys not."

"Nah," Adam answered, "it would be insulting if we got the pass and he didn't, that would be saying Sai is more of a player and a ladies' man than we are, and I don't think my pride would survive that."

"Oooh! Burn!" Akan cheered, proceeding into another complicated shake with the other, annoying everyone present again.

Except Sasuke, who, like Shikamaru, hadn't been paying much attention to any of them. He finally spoke up, when he noticed something none of the others had noticed yet.

"Did anyone notice when the Dobe left?"

The boys looked around, all noticing for the first time that Naruto had, indeed, disappeared.

"Huh, wonder where he went..." Adam yawned.

"Yes, who _knows_ where he went..." Sai concurred, a smile on his face that creeped them all out.

* * *

Naruto roughly grabbed his backpack, stuffing his books and binders in, and then slammed his locker. The sound it made rung loudly through the near-empty hallways, and Naruto flinched, realizing how ridiculous he was acting. He sighed and slung a shoulder strap onto his back, shoving his other occupied arm in his pocket, and began the trek home.

Unbidden, he heard the giggles coming from the girls locker room as he passed by it. He flinched again, and hurried past.

'Why am I acting like this?' he wondered. 'I don't wanna run into Hinata, but I shouldn't care one way or another!'

He slowed to a stop, the hand on his backpack strap tightening as he clenched his fist.

'I don't get it...'

He took a deep breath and began walking slower, almost at a lachrymose pace, forcing himself to calm down. His grip loosened, and he pulled his hand out of his pocket, instead running it through his messy blonde spikes.

He sighed again and walked outside.

He paused.

The sun was streaming down beautifully, clouds dotting the sky. The sky itself was a deep, rich blue hue that he recognized as his own eye color.

'Sure is odd,' he finally managed to think. Instead of hurrying home, he crossed the front grounds of the school and plopped himself down on a bench, reclining his head backwards. A breeze picked up, blowing the tree above his head.

He watched as light filtered through the leaves, shadows shifting as the tree rustled.

'Maybe it's because she's my friend,' he thought to himself. 'I don't want someone stalking her.' He nodded to himself vigorously. 'Yeah, that's it! Nobody should try to date Hinata-chan if I don't approve of them!'

He stood and flung his pack over his shoulder again, and began humming to himself as he headed home.

'That's why.' He turned and looked over his shoulder at the high school campus, eyebrows furrowing.

"That's GOTTA be why," he mumbled to himself, turning around again.

But somehow, that didn't quite seem like the truth, and he knew it.

* * *

**Author notes:**

**Myomi-chan:** Wahoo! We're gettin' closer to the gala, ladies and gents (mostly ladies)! Hang tight, review, and Happy New Years!

**Chelty- chan:** Happy new Years guys! Thanks so much for the reviews keep em coming, more reviews equal faster updates *wink-wink* I look forward to seeing you all here next update XD


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys, awesome reviews made us smile and laugh and stuff. And yes, Myomi-chan and I are two separate people. Myomi has her own profile and awesome Naruto stories that I readily suggest checking out!**

**Disclaimer: We hereby claim a disclaimer! (I'm not sure what that means, I just see it used a lot XD)**

* * *

"Narutooo!" Yamato yelled, hoping the blonde could hear him above the din of cheering spectators and cheerleaders. "FOCUS!"

Naruto's head snapped up, blinking rapidly as he brought a hand up to wipe the sweat that was rolling down his face and into his eyes. Out of habit, his blue eyes snapped to the score board.

1 – 0.

The Konoha High Horn Toads were leading by a goal to nothing against Suna High's Mad Racoons. Although the Horn Toads were in the lead, their opponents had proven to be quite formidable. Any minute now, the half-time whistle would blow.

Naruto blinked again, running forward to back Neji and Sasuke. A Suna midfielder was barrelling down the pitch with the ball. Naruto stopped, looking to Neji for his signal. Neji nodded and turned to Sasuke, who nodded back.

As the attacker neared, Sasuke ran forward to intercept, and as expected the attacker ran around him…right into Neji's trap.

Neji smirked at the shocked look on the opponent's face, as he ran around him, kicking the ball to Sasuke, who passed to Naruto.

Naruto ran forward immediately, dribbling the ball in front of him. He could hear their opponents shouting instructions at each other and knew interference was headed his way. Sure enough, he saw a defender, the red of his shirt hurting his eyes in the hot sunlight blaring down on the pitch.

His eyes narrowed, knowing he had to distract the defender until the last possible second when he would pass to Sasuke to score. Sounds slowed, and everything blurred as he tried to drown out all other sound – the cheering crowd, the cheerleader's chants and shouts, his teammates, Yamato, Sasuke, the netball team, Neji…wait...THE NETBALL TEAM?! – Naruto momentarily lost his balance, toppling forward and getting a face full of grass.

The referee blew his whistle.

The players stopped running around, everyone confused as to what had just happened. The referee flashed a red card. Apparently, the Suna defender had tripped Naruto intentionally. As Naruto sat up, shaking his head to lessen the dizziness, Suna's team captain ran up.

"Ren, why did you do that?" he question, eyes narrowing at the defender-in-question, who looked less than sorry.

"I was going after the ball, not my fault he's clumsy." He retorted, scoffing as he brushed some grass off his shin. "What is your problem, Gaara?"

Jade eyes narrowed to mere slits. "I already told you that we are not to use such tactics anymore."

Ren 'humphed', but said nothing else as Gaara held out a hand to help Naruto up. "Are you alright, Naruto?"

"Ow…yeah, I'll live." The blonde responded, experimentally rotating his tripped ankle, wincing inwardly when a sharp pain shot up his leg. Outwardly, he maintained his poker face, knowing that if he heard, Yamato would immediately substitute him.

"Are you sure?"

Just then the half-time whistle blew and Naruto was saved from answering.

* * *

"Yo, Naruto," Shikamaru droned as the team caught their breath at the benches. "You sure you're alright? That was quite a faceplant earlier."

"Yes," Sai agreed, "are you missing any teeth?"

He received many odd looks.

"Uh…I'm fine." Naruto answered, grabbing a water bottle.

"Ah, that is good. I hear missing teeth are not a very attractive feature." Sai commented.

"Anyway," Yamato drawled, eyeing Sai awkwardly out of the corner of his eye. "I know Suna aren't an easy team to beat, but you guys are doing great so far, even if we are only leading by a goal. Adam, Tesla, Chad, Akan, you guys need to kick the defence up a notch-"

"Seriously, they almost scored!" Kiba shouted. "How do you keep letting them break through the defence. If it wasn't for-"

"Kiba stay alert." Yamato warned, effectively stopping another rant. Ignoring the goalie's muttered grumbling, he then turned to the three team forwards. "Neji, Sasuke, Naruto, you three should switch tactics. I have a feeling, the second half won't be as easy as the first-"

"Who says the first was easy?!" Adam interrupted. There were murmurs of agreement.

"Stop complaining." Naruto snapped, making everyone fall silent at his tone of voice. "While we're in here squabbling about nothing, Gaara and his team are coming up with strategies for the next half, we should also be-"

"Stop trying to act cool, Dobe." Sasuke interrupted.

"I for one, actually agree with Naruto." A new voice quipped. "It's rude to interrupt people, you know that, right…Uchiha-san?"

It was eerily quiet as Sasuke glared daggers at Sakura, who was completely unfazed, and grinning brightly at him.

"Remind me again, Coach Yamato," Neji asked, eyes closed, eyebrow twitching as he scowled, arms crossed over his chest, "why the netball team is here?"

"Well," Yamato laughed awkwardly, scratching a cheek, "Since there are no netball matches scheduled for today, the girls were nice enough to come down to support us today."

"Why?" Kiba asked, peering at the grinning girls suspiciously. "Don't you have weird girly shopping and talking to do before the gala on Friday?"

Ino rolled her eyes, along with a majority of her team. "Please," she scoffed, "we went shopping YESTERDAY. Everyone knows you're supposed to go before all the good dresses get cleaned out."

"Right." Kiba rolled his eyes.

"That reminds me," Ino continued, turning to Sakura, Hinata and Tenten, "Did you guys decide the movie to rent for the sleepover?"

"Yes! 'She's The Man'!" Sakura cheered.

Ino along with some of the girls, groaned. "Again?"

"Don't you ever get tired of that movie?" Ino asked.

"What?" Sakura snapped defensively. "It's a great movie, and besides…Channing Tatum is just-" she sighed, a dreamy look in her green eyes.

"Yeah," the rest of the team sighed along with her, a similar look in their eyes.

"Wow, I feel so supported." Kiba drawled.

"Ehehe…s-sorry, guys." Hinata stammered, shocking herself at having managed to address the entire male soccer team without fainting.

"I still don't understand why they're here," Sai commented.

Naruto groaned and facepalmed when Sai's comment garnered Ino's attention. She scoffed, "WE are here because your cheerleaders stink," she deadpanned, "and their uniforms…ugh, my eyes want to barf whenever I see them, no wonder you poor things are having such a hard time winning." She added sympathetically.

She was met with blank stares from the guys.

Yamato coughed. "Uh, maybe we should get back to strategies. Thank you for stopping by girls, but perhaps it would be better if you went back to your seats?" he said pleasantly, not really giving them a choice.

Ino opened her mouth to protest.

"I said…back to your seats." Yamato said, face twisted in a creepy grimace-like stare. The girls squeaked and started filing back to their seats, until only Hinata, Ino, Tenten and Sakura remained.

"Why are you four still here?" Sai asked.

"You don't expect us to really just return to our seats, do you?" Sakura retorted.

"We did say we were here for support, regardless of whether it's needed or not. Which it is, cause, seriously have you seen those weird uniforms?" Ino shuddered. "You guys need something NOT revolting to look at to win."

Sai blinked. "Which brings me back to why you're all still here."

"Uh, Sai-" Naruto started, intending to warn the boy.

"Excuse me?" Sakura, Ino and Tenten asked at the same time.

Too late, Naruto thought, cringing.

"Well, you are quite revolting to look at-"

Sai didn't get to finish his sentence, as the three enraged girls pounced on him, biting, scratching and clawing at whatever they could reach with their newly manicured nails. They had been to the salon earlier that morning in preparation for the gala, after all.

Yamato sighed, rubbing his throbbing temples. Where the heck was Kakashi? He couldn't handle this by himself.

"Yo, Tenzou."

Speak of the devil.

"Kakashi!" Yamato whirled around to face the sheepish looking coach. "Where have you been? You missed the entire first half!" he yelled.

"I did?" Kakashi asked innocently, looking up at the now seemingly very interesting cloudless sky. "I could have sworn my planner said the game started at 2:45-"

"That's. Next. Week's. Game." Yamato ground out through clenched teeth.

"Hoo, looks like the opponents are going back on the pitch and…oh sorry, were you saying something, Tenzou?" Kakashi asked, eyeing the twitching assistant, who had a near-manic expression on his face.

"The second half is about to start, and we haven't gone over any new strategy!" Yamato yelled, pulling on his hair.

"Relax Tenzou, I'm sure it will all work out," Kakashi said dismissively as he pulled out his favourite orange book.

"Stop calling me that!" Yamato snapped, snatching the book away and proceeding to stomp on it. "My name is Yamato. Ya-Ma-Tooo!" he shouted, accentuating with vicious stomps each time.

Kakashi and the rest of the team along with the girls, looked on with blank stares, unable to do much else, stunned beyond comprehension.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Kakashi suddenly yelled, lurching forward to pry a crazed Yamato off his book, an equally crazed look on his face.

After 5 minutes of that continued, with the teens still staring dumbfounded at the squabbling coaches, the referee ran up to them intending to report a startling incident happening on the pitch….only to find another unfolding.

"Why isn't anyone doing anything?!" the referee panicked as he watched Yamato sink his teeth into Kakashi's shoulder, making him drop the now-tattered book.

"It's best not to interfere." Neji said gravely.

"Well, now who's going to deal with the mascot situation?" the referee exclaimed, panicking.

"There's a mascot situation?" Neji asked, with a sense of foreboding. With Kakashi and Yamato currently er…indisposed, technically, he was next in charge as team captain.

* * *

The teens, along with a majority of the audience, blankly stared in shocked silence as the two team mascots wrestled on the pitch.

"You called me FAT!" the giant Frog yelled.

"You called me STUPID!" the giant…er, panda?...shot back.

"CHOUJI!" Naruto yelled.

"Kankuro…what do you think you're doing?" Gaara asked blandly, his twitching eye belaying his irritation.

The two mascots jumped apart, simultaneously yelling, "HE STARTED IT!"

"He called me a fat frog." Chouji complained, his costume missing an eye.

"Because you ARE one," Kankuro sneered, his panda costume, not being the only one with one black eye. "And I thought it was Konoha High Horn Toads…not frogs."

"There's a difference?" Kiba blinked.

"Does it matter?" Ino snapped.

"Actually while toads are…" Sai started, and then trailed off at the look Ino gave him, lest he incur another manicure nightmare. His cheeks had just stopped bleeding from the previous nail scratches after all.

"HA! You're one to talk!" Chouji yelled back. "If you guys are the Suna High Mad Racoons, why the heck are you a giant Panda?"

Kankuro was about to pounce on Chouji again, when Gaara pulled him back by the scruff of the back of his neck.

"You do know that Temari is going to kill you when she hears about this right?"

"If everyone is quite finished," the referee said testily, eye twitching, "I would like for this match to end sometime today, so that I can go back home…where things make sense."

With that he blew his whistle and ushered the non-players off the pitch.

"What do we do now, Captain?" Adam snarked, as they all took their starting positions.

"Just follow my lead," Neji instructed, "hopefully, we can survive the rest of the match."

* * *

Following Neji's lead, didn't really work out well.

The final whistle blew 49 minutes later.

Naruto frowned, panting as he checked the score board.

1 – 1.

Even four extra minutes hadn't been enough to break the tie.

Great, now we have to go to penalties, Naruto thought, teeth clenching.

* * *

Hinata shivered, pulling her jacket tighter around herself, as she walked across the pitch. She sucked in a shaky breath as she neared the spot where Naruto sat.

What would she even say to him?

She stopped a few feet away from him, his back to her. She was shivering slightly, but he didn't even seem to notice the cold as he continued to sit there, still in his football uniform.

How long had he been sitting here? The sun had almost fully set.

"N-Naruto..?" she called, tentatively.

He stiffened. Her brow furrowed.

"A-Are you o-okay?" she prodded. "E-everyone left already."

He remained still for a few seconds before turning to face her, a grin plastered on his face. "Oh! Hey Hinata! I didn't know you were there!"

Hinata's brow furrowed further. He was acting funny, she knew he knew that she knew he knew she was there…

"Oh, everyone went home huh?" he said suddenly, looking around, looking anywhere but directly at her.

Hinata blinked at him for a few seconds. He finally stopped looking around when she remained silent.

"I think you did great today…N-Naruto." She finally said quietly.

His head snapped to her at those words. She was blushing and looking at the ground, suddenly finding her plain little pumps very interesting.

Naruto's head tilted to the side as he studied her. The girl that had unwittingly been fleeting through his head at random times the past three days. He blinked, realising that this was the first time he was seeing or talking to her since finding out about her admirer that Wednesday.

"Thanks…Hinata." He said finally.

Her head lifted, and a breeze blew past. Her navy blue almost-indigo hair fluttered around her face as she smiled and nodded at him.

And just like that, Naruto felt like an invisible weight had been lifted off him, as he grinned back. It was like whatever was making the prospect of seeing her an awkward one before, was just…gone.

It was like…another Wednesday. He grinned wider. Yeah, Wednesday.

* * *

Speaking of Wednesday, today was Wednesday.

Naruto panted slightly, trapping the ball he had been juggling under his foot. Hinata would probably arrive any moment now. Even so, he tried to focus. He had a long way to go still, as far as playing went.

But it wasn't long before the scent of raspberries wafted along. He again paused from dribbling and turned to face the girl approaching him.

He immediately blinked.

She looked (and smelled) like she did every day. Well, okay, she was wearing her hair in a ponytail today, but she'd done that before. There really wasn't any particular reason for it. But he did a double-take anyway.

For some reason, the way she looked, crossing the battered school fields in her netball uniform, hair pulled back from her face, swishing back and forth behind her, ball held to her side, sunlight pouring onto her head and cascading down her like water from a waterfall, sent goosebumps all along his skin.

He felt his mouth fall open, and he didn't close it.

There was something... Not different... No, definitely not different. She was the same Hinata, the same Hinata he met every Wednesday to silently, contentedly devote at least a half-hour to improving his soccer skills with. No, she wasn't any different, but there was SOMETHING... New. Something he hadn't noticed before.

He roused himself as she came to a stop a meter or two away from him.

Smile, Naruto, he told himself.

He grinned.

"Heya, Hinata!" he said. She nodded, returning his smile with a shyer, softer one.

"H-Hello, Naruto," she replied.

Awkward silence.

Or at least, awkward to him. Maybe to someone like Hinata, silence was comfort. To someone like Naruto, silence was discomfort.

"Sooooooo..." he drawled, not quite sure what to say. "You guys - girls, sorry, didn't mean to - well, anyway - you and the other girls went shopping, right?"

Hinata nodded, smile growing, cheeks flushing just a tad.

"Cool!" he said. "I would've gone with you guys - GIRLS - but I had practice, y'know..." he trailed off.

Need a Chill pill, Naruto? He asked himself grumpily. Sheesh. Slow down!

He didn't know why he was talking so fast. He just was.

Hinata smiled understandingly.

"I-It's okay," she said. "We found e-everything all right."

Eventually, she added in her head, repressing a shudder as she remembered the very many dresses Ino made her try on before one was deemed 'The One'.

"Oh," he managed.

Awkward silence.

He started dribbling again, more to give himself something to do than to actually practice.

Taking it as her cue to leave, Hinata turned to walk to the netball field.

But seeing her turn made him completely forget about dribbling.

"Wait, Hinata!"

She stopped and turned, hair (and skirt, which he unfortunately wasn't able to avert his gaze from soon enough) fluttering about her. He felt his cheeks redden, and he shook his head vigorously.

"Never mind," he said. Then he grinned at her again, forcing himself not to let his eyes drift. "I can't wait to see what you wear!"

She blushed, nodded, and turned, walking briskly away, but the scent of raspberries hung in the air around him, pestering him with a question.

And when they both began to head back inside after practicing silently, he blurted it without thinking.

"Hinata, who's your secret admirer?"

He knew it was the wrong thing to ask. She froze, a deer trapped in the headlights, eyes widening.

He hastily moved to explain himself.

"Because, you know-" cue frantic hand gestures "- I don't want him to be some creep! If he's a pervert, or something, I don't want anything bad to happen!"

Now she was just giving him a weird look.

"B-Because I don't think you should have to... If someone's blackmailing you or bribing you or something, you know you don't have to do it... And also, I..."

He hadn't realized he'd trailed off until she spoke.

"N-Naruto."

He blinked back to reality.

"Uh..."

She smiled sweetly, kindly.

"I-I'm happy you're... C-Concerned for me," she said, "But I-"

"HINATA!"

They both flinched. When they turned their heads as one, her hair flipped towards him, the smell of raspberries smacking him in the face and dazing him momentarily.

He came to in time to see Neji stomp to a stop directly in front of them.

And he looked furious.

"Why," he said in a low growl laced with anger, "Is someone leaving 'gifts' in your locker?"

* * *

**A/N:**

**Myomi-chan: So glad to be back! Love you guys, and remember: a review a day keeps the kunai away! ("I made that last part up myself!" - Thumper)**

**Chelty-chan: Yes, it is awesome to be back! You guys are awesome for patiently waiting for updates and stuff XD now let me see by show of hands who's looking forward to the gala AND next chapter? Well, since I cant see your hands, a review will suffice XD**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: We own nothing.**

**This is by far our longest chapter yet….I'd like to thank Myomi for being patient and collaborating on this story with me…you rock!**

* * *

Saturday morning was going as it usually did in the Hyuuga house.

Mr Hyuuga was reading the paper and his wife stood by the counter, pouring a cup of her usual blended fruit shake, while chatting away on her Bluetooth with her assistant.

"Uh huh, yes. Tell them I want those on my desk by Monday." She answered, turning around to sit opposite her husband. "And I also want you to go over the reports we got from production and give me a detailed report first thing on Monday morning." She paused to sip. "Okay, that is all for now. Enjoy your weekend, Missa." She finished, clicking the device off with a sigh.

"Everything alright?" her husband asked from behind the paper.

"It will be." She answered, rubbing her temple with her free hand. "As long as production can meet the deadline before I have to unveil the new collection next week in Kyoto."

Mr Hyuuga didn't get to respond as Hanabi came bounding down the stairs that very moment.

"Dad!" she called as she ran down.

"Your daughter's awake."

A sigh.

"Daaaad!" Hanabi yelled, louder, as she ran into the kitchen.

"Hanabi, really, it's just 7:30…in the morning." Her mother chastised. "Honestly, what happened to the good old days when children woke up all groggy-eyed and watched cartoons in their pyjamas on weekends?"

"You mean like Hinata and big brother used to do, right?" Hanabi pouted; "when they were five!" she huffed and rolled her eyes. "I'm Thir-teen, mom. Teeeeen." She stressed the word.

"Right, right, sorry." She smiled mirthfully. "My …er, bad?" she finished, squinting at Hanabi for confirmation that she had used the expression right.

Hanabi nodded and grinned, and then turned to her dad. "So daddy," she started batting her eyes up at him.

"No." he said simply, turning the paper's page without even looking at her.

"B-But..I didn't even ask you yet!"

Mr Hyuuga sighed and folded his paper. "You were going to ask to come to the Sarutobi residence with me this afternoon, were you not?"

Hanabi huffed and crossed her arms. "Okay fine, so you knew."

Her dad patted her head and gave her a small smile…and then picked up his paper again-

"So then I can come with you?"

-and crumpled it.

Hanabi was grinning up at him, pearly whites blinding. That smile was making his teeth ache. He sighed. "Fine. You can come with me."

"YES!"

"Whoa, hold it!" Her mother interrupted. "Neji's first game of the season is today, and we are going as a FAMILY to support him."

"Wait, but mom-"

"Dear, let's be reason-"

"Am. I. Understood?" she stressed, eyes sharp. Father and daughter swallowed.

"That really isn't necessary, mother." Neji interrupted walking barefoot into the kitchen, heading straight for the fridge.

"Morning, big brother!" Hanabi chirped cheerfully. Neji's head poked out from behind the fridge, eyes narrowed.

**I'm on to you**, he mouthed to her silently.

"Morning." He said aloud, smirking at the venom written all over Hanabi's face. A warning.

**'Mess up my chances today and you. WILL. Pay.'**

"But Neji," his mother said, standing up, "don't you want us there to support you?"

"It's a long season, there will be plenty of opportunities for you guys to come down," he answered, voice muffled as he searched through the giant fridge, "but father has to go to the Sarutobi's today."

"Yes, but-"

Neji sighed, interrupting, as he straightened and closed the fridge door. "Mother, what is more important, my game or finalizing the contract between Hyuuga Corp. and Sarutobi & sons?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, as he threw the apple he had gotten up and caught it just as easily.

"At least some one gets i- *Ahem* I mean, are you sure son? We could at least see the first half?" his father amended after the look his wife shot him.

"Quite, father."

"That's my boy." He answered, standing to clamp a hand on Neji's shoulder. "It's too bad you don't want to take over the company someday, son. You have a good head on your shoul-"

"AHEM!" Hanabi interrupted. "Still. in. the. room." She snapped pointing at herself.

"Oh right." Mr Hyuuga chuckled, turning to her. "You're going to take over when I retire, isn't that right, Princess?" he asked, squatting so he could be level with her.

"Right!" Hanabi declared as she glomped onto him, smirking up at Neji over their dad's shoulder.

**Oh, you're good.** He mouthed, matching her smirk.

"Aren't you all forgetting something?" Mrs Hyuuga interrupted.

They shared a look.

"Hinata doesn't want to take over the company." They answered in unison.

Mrs Hyuuga rolled her eyes. "That's not what I meant."

They shared another look, and when realization dawned, all eyes fell on Hanabi.

She sighed. "I'll go wake her."

"No, don't." her mother answered. "Let your sister rest, she seemed exhausted last night."

"Sis is always tired." Hanabi answered quickly. "She had netball practice after school, didn't she?"

"Yes, but she seemed more tired than usual. And she has been acting …different these past few days."

Neji frowned. "Now that you mention it, Hinata has been acting strange lately."

"Strange?" his father questioned.

"Hn." Neji's frown turned thoughtful.

"Seriously, you're all worrying about nothing," Hanabi interrupted, laughing nervously. "I know Hinata. Trust me, she is fine."

She gulped when Neji's sharp gaze flicked to her. She knew that look. Uh-oh.

"I'm going to go wake her!" she said hurriedly, her mind chanting 'escape!' over and over.

"No, Hanabi." Her mother shook her head. "I think you should let her sleep in today. She doesn't have a game, and she did come in pretty late last night. Poor thing."

"Late?" Hanabi scoffed. "It was like 6:30 when- oh yeah, she should rest. Poor thing, shopping can be such drain. Especially if Ino is involved." She added at her mother's look.

Her mother laughed. "Oh, All Yamanakas are like that! Remember when we were in high school dear?"

Neji and Hanabi shared a horrified look.

"Oh the trouble Inoichi used to get us in," she paused to laugh again, "and then Chouza would…hey, where did they go?" she asked, looking around at the kitchen that was now lacking the presence of the Hyuuga siblings.

"They ran away before you could traumatize them with another one of your trips down memory lane." Her husband answered; safe from her glare behind the paper he had resumed reading.

She pouted, offended. "My stories aren't traumatising…are they?"

Mr Hyuuga sighed...again.

* * *

Hanabi and Neji simultaneously let out a relieved sigh when they reached the second floor landing.

"That was too close."

"Yeah." Hanabi nodded, glancing at the wall clock to avoid Neji's curious gaze. "I'm gonna go wake sis, you better hurry if you don't wanna be late."

Neji's eyes narrowed. "What do you know that I don't?"

**Darn, so close**. Hanabi whined inwardly, as her hand which had been raised to the doorknob of Hinata's bedroom door, froze.

When she turned, her face was impassive, her features schooled into blandness. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"That won't work on me, Hanabi._** I**_ taught you how to do that."

"How to do what?" she asked innocently.

"Nejiiiiii! You better hurry if you don't want to be laaaaate!"

Neji cringed, and Hanabi smirked triumphantly. She had never loved her mother more than she did in that moment.

"You better behave at the Sarutobi's, without me there to keep an eye on you, who knows what you'll-"

Hanabi groaned and rolled her eyes. "Seriously. I know WHEN to behave, big brother. C'mon, how bout a little faith in your sister?"

Neji spared her a withering look. She sighed.

"Alright fine… I'll behave." She grumbled begrudgingly. He raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms, and she sighed again. "Okay, okay, I won't disrupt the meeting like last time, and I won't bother Father, and I won't chase Konohamaru around and-"

"Okay that's enough, the game will have finished by the time your list is done."

Hanabi pouted. "You're so mean!" she yelled, barging into Hinata's room and slamming the door in his face.

Neji almost laughed, but then he saw what time it was, and he bolted for his own bathroom.

* * *

"Morning, Hanabi." Hinata chirped, smoothing down her top duvet, having just finished making her bed.

"Whoa." Hanabi gasped, blinking at her sister. Hinata was smiling down at her, already showered and dressed. Hanabi's eyes flicked to the alarm clock on Hinata's bedside table. When she saw the time, she immediately dropped into a defensive stance. "Okay, who are you and what have you done with my sister?"

Hinata laughed. "Oh Hanabi, it's me. Really, it isn't that shocking that I woke up early today." She said as she walked to her closet for a pair of shoes. "I did sleep pretty early last night."

"Yeah. But its Saturday." Hanabi deadpanned, suspicious eyes following Hinata, who sighed. "And it's only 7: 42."

"I know what time it is." Hinata's muffled voice drifted out of the closet.

"Yeaaaah. But it's **SATUR-DAY**."

Hinata's head poked out of the closet. "Yes…" she said slowly, "we established that Hanabi. It is indeed a Saturday today."

"Let me see if I have this straight. You're up before 8 on Saturday and don't find it strange at all?" Hanabi asked, squinting. Hinata nodded.

"Okay then. I'll be right back." Hanabi stated, turning and reaching for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To tell everyone that we need to lock ourselves in an emergency bunker ASAP. The apocalypse is surely upon us."

Hinata frowned. "That's not funny."

"Oh come on, admit it, it was pretty funny." Hanabi laughed.

Hinata's lips twitched, and she gave in and laughed.

"Okay, maybe just a little." She agreed as she walked out of the closet, carrying two pairs of flat pumps, one a plain white, the other a simple black with tiny blue bows on them. "Which ones should I wear?" she asked, holding them up for Hanabi to see.

Hanabi's eyes widened. "You want my opinion on something YOU are going to wear? This morning just keeps getting freakier and freakier."

Hinata rolled her eyes. "Hanabi, please."

"Okay, okay." Hanabi relented, holding her hands up as she sank back down on Hinata's bed. "The white ones. But seriously, why are you up so early and where are you going?"

"I'm going to Neji's game later today. Right now, I'm going to meet up with Ino and the girls. We are going to the salon for manicures and pedicures…what are you doing?"

Hanabi had shot up in the middle of her sentence and started prodding her with a finger and checking her temperature. "You just said you are willingly going to get a manny peddy - you HAVE to be sick or something."

"Okay, now you're just being ridiculous, Hanabi." Hinata sighed.

"Oh waiiiiiit. I know why you're willing to." Hanabi suddenly sing-songed, Cheshire cat grin on her face. "Is this about your you-know-what?"

Hinata's face was immediately aflame. Sometimes she really regretted telling Hanabi about her secret admirer. Like now. Why had she told her again? Oh yeah, because she had felt like she would burst if she didn't tell someone at home what was going on. No way was she telling her parents and telling Neji was out of the question, thus Hanabi had been the safest choice….or so she had thought.

"Oh speaking of that. Big brother's suspicious."

Hinata immediately shot up from where she sat digging through her box full of mostly unworn jewellery. "He doesn't know, right?"

"No." Hanabi answered, and Hinata let out a relieved sigh, which she choked on when she heard Hanabi's next words. "I think you should tell him."

"I- I can't do that." She sputtered.

"He's going to find out sooner or later." Hanabi pointed out.

"Yes. I'd rather he find out later. You know how Neji is." She sighed.

"Yes, I do know. Mum and Dad are worried, too, just so you know. So Nii-san is probably going to try twice as hard as he normally would to find out what's going on. Twice as hard, sis. Think about it."

Hinata groaned, interrupting but Hanabi continued talking. "And when he does find out, which he will, he is going to be upset, scratch that, majorly angry, when he finds out that you've been keeping this from him."

"He'll still be angry if I tell him myself." Hinata pointed out.

Hanabi raised an eyebrow at her. "Now you're just being desperate. You and I both know that he is going to be way angrier if he finds out from someone other than you. Frankly, I was shocked that he bought the whole it's-just-a-rumour thing you fed him. But then it makes sense. Nii-san would never expect you to lie to his face, which you did. That's a whole other reason why you should-"

"Let's not talk about it anymore," Hinata interrupted, rubbing her temple. Her head was starting to hurt.

"I hate to be the 13-year-old voice of reason sis, but trust me, if nii-san finds out from someone else: you're going to regret it."

Hinata groaned again, banging her head lightly on her dresser. "I already feel guilty about lying to him, Hanabi, you don't have to remind me. But this is something different. It's not like not telling him I had a B+ on my chemistry assignme-"

"You had a B+ on the assignment? Ohh, big brother is going to be soo…oh… oops, sorry, carry on." Hanabi said, grinning sheepishly.

Hinata sighed and shook her head, getting up. "Forget it. I need to meet up with the girls right now; I don't have time to talk about this."

"Whatevs, I have to go get ready myself. I'm going to Konohamaru's with dad later." Hanabi said as she jumped off the bed.

"You're going to behave, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seriously. That was ONE time. One time." Hanabi complained as she walked out.

Hinata only laughed as she followed Hanabi out, pulling her door closed behind her.

Her laughter immediately died in her throat when she saw Neji emerge from his own room. Darn. She had forgotten that it took less time for boys than it did girls, to get ready.

"Yeaaah. Later." Hanabi chirped, flashing the peace sign as she shut the door to her room.

**My, how helpful**, Hinata thought forlornly.

"M-Morning Nii-san."

She flinched inwardly. Stuttering would not help her case here.

"Good morning, Hinata. I see you're going somewhere, do you need a ride?" he asked as he brushed past her.

Hinata sighed as she turned to follow him. There really was no room for argument.

"I-I'm going to Ino's house," she explained, following him down the stairs. He nodded.

"Then I'll take you after you eat," he replied. Hinata inwardly groaned.

**Great,** she thought. **Just great.**

* * *

After finishing breakfast and brushing her teeth, Hinata followed Neji out to his car. She slid in, put her purse on the ground by her, and glanced nervously at her brother while he backed out of the driveway.

There was a pregnant pause before Hinata cleared her throat.

"You know the way, right?" she asked.

"I've taken you before, Hinata. Multiple times."

"Ah. Okay."

Another pause in the conversation. Hinata felt nervous... And awkward. It had been no easy feat, keeping her secret from Neji. But if he was suspicious, that would make things even harder to hide from him.

"Are you looking forward to the dance?"

Neji's question startled her. She nodded (a bit too fervently, she realized belatedly).

"Yes, I can't wait."

"Clearly." He shook his head pityingly. "If you're willing to spend hours with Yamanaka for it." He shivered.

"She's not THAT bad," Hinata said, defending her friend. "She can just get... Enthusiastic."

Neji snorted, and Hinata grinned.

"So WHY are you so excited about the gala, anyway?"

Hinata's grin slipped.

Neji had brought it up so casually, but she knew him well enough to realize it was anything but casual. He had probably geared their entire conversation up to this point towards this one question.

And now she had to answer it.

"Oh, w-well, you know," she said, floundering, "It's a big deal. Awards and all."

Neji nodded, but glanced over at her expectantly. Clearly, he wanted more of an explanation.

She swallowed nervously.

"I want to make memories," she said lamely. She saw him raise an eyebrow. She hastily elaborated. "Y-You only get to make high school memories while in high school. This is... A huge opportunity." She chose her words carefully. "It means a lot to me... To be acknowledged, even by people I'm not necessarily friends with, by people I don't really know." The gifts of her secret admirer flashes through her mind. "I... I want to show them me, at my best."

Her brother was silent as he got off the freeway. When they stopped at a streetlight, he turned to face her.

"I trust you."

She smiled at him, but inside, she was worried.

There was a hidden implication beneath her brother's words. As he turned onto Ino's street, Hinata couldn't help but worry. Her brother trusted her... But that didn't mean he believed her.

Neji pulled into the Yamanaka's driveway, and Hinata quickly got out of the car.

"I-I'll be at the game with Ino and the others." Neji smiled.

"Good. It'll be worth it."

She laughed.

"You guys will do wonderfully," she said. "You've all been working so hard."

Neji nodded.

"But the other team is going to be hard to beat."

Hinata nodded.

"I believe in you all." she told him. Neji grinned back at her. They said their goodbyes, and then Hinata turned and went to Ino's front door. She knocked, knowing her brother would not leave until she'd entered safely.

The door swung open, and Ino, looking impeccably dressed, with perfectly styled hair and flawlessly applied makeup, greeted her with a large smile.

"You're here!" she cried exuberantly, and before Hinata could turn to wave goodbye to Neji, she'd been yanked inside the house by her blonde friend. "Come on! We've got LOTS to do today!"

Hinata would have flinched in fear if not for the fact that she was looking forward to today.

"Yeah," she responded with just as much vigor as her friend. "Let's do this!"

Ino shook her head.

"First, we need to go over some basics with hair and makeup," she told Hinata. They entered the living room, where Ino's Father was watching television.

"Hey, Hinata," he said, looking up. "How's it going?"

"Great, thanks," she responded politely. "Good morning Mr Yamanaka."

"That's good." He nodded and turned his attention back to the television. "Ino, the other girls went up to your bedroom."

"Oh, is everyone here already?" asked Hinata.

"Yeah, you're the last." Ino quickly snatched the remote from her father and turned the t.v. off. "Seriously, Dad, could you go help mom in the kitchen or something?" she asked as she ushered her friend up the stairs. "You're such a club potato!"

"Says the girl who spends her time on the internet," Inoichi mumbled.

"Hey, I have an image to uphold, even when I'm not at school!" Ino called down to him, smirking as Hinata giggled. They walked into Ino's bedroom to find Sakura and TenTen lounging on the King-sized mattress.

"Hinata!" yelled Sakura happily, hopping up from the bed. "Good morning!"

On the bed, TenTen let out a moan.

"It's too earlyyyy," she groaned. Ino rolled her eyes.

"We can get more done today if we start out early!" she replied. "Starting with this!" She pulled Hinata in front of her. "We need to show Hinata how to do her hair and makeup for the gala!"

"Couldn't you just do it for her?" TenTen asked, rolling over to lie on her stomach. "Since it's such a big concern, I mean."

Ino waved her hand dismissively at the suggestion.

"Puh-lease, I have my own beautiful self to take care of!"

Sakura snorted.

"Beautiful…sure, we'll go with that."

Ino huffed.

"Not now, Forehead! C'mon, go get the hairspray from my bathroom! TenTen, can you drag the floor-length mirror over here?"

Hinata realized that today was going to be a very long day. But it was worth it.

She would do her best to look her best, for Naruto.

And for her secret admirer.

Yet, at the back of her mind, Neji's words lingered.

_**I trust you.**_

Hinata resisted the urge to groan, knowing full well that her conscience would not leave her alone. Then again, she knew she would gain nothing but unsightly bags under her eyes and early wrinkles if she continued to worry about her brother…well, according to Ino, anyways, which would be counterproductive to her goal.

Neji would find out eventually, yes, that fact was unavoidable, but Hinata wanted to at least know who her admirer was before Neji found out, if not just to be a little bit prepared for that conversation with him. And she would find out who he was at the gala no matter what.

The thought making a determined smile break out on her face, Hinata was able to momentarily forget her brother and her uneasiness, as she felt like maybe, just maybe she might be able to pull this off.

* * *

The following Wednesday, that thought however, went flying out the window.

Hinata knew something was definitely wrong when she saw the look on her brother's face as he crossed the pitch to where she stood with Naruto.

She could tell he was upset – pissed off – clearly, about something, but the words that came out of his mouth when he stopped in front of them, were the last words she wanted to hear.

"Why," he said in a low growl laced with anger, "Is someone leaving 'gifts' in your locker?"

Hinata immediately went stiff as a board, scrambling her mind to come up with something he would believe. Her mouth kept opening and closing, but no words were coming out.

"Hinata. I asked you a question."

She flinched, her eyes darting left and right. "U-Uh..N-Neji..I-"

"The truth, Hinata." He demanded, as though he could tell she was trying to come up with an excuse or a lie.

"Dude, relax." Naruto said, his eyes flicking back and forth between the two siblings, he could tell that Hinata was extremely nervous, and it seemed to be getting worse with each passing second.

"Stay out of this, Uzumaki." Neji stated menacingly, not taking his eyes off his sister. "It does not concern you."

Hinata flinched, her eyes flicking nervously to Naruto. **Oh no**, she thought forlornly. She knew that look on his face.

"Hey! Hinata is my friend-"

"And she is **_my_** _**sister**_." Neji shot back, turning to glare at him. "And as her brother, it's my duty to-"

"To what?" Naruto sneered. "Dude, it's just a secret admirer! It's not her fault and she didn't ask for one, so why are you acting as if she committed some horrible crime!"

Neji didn't answer, his eyes narrowing as he slowly turned to face his sister once more. She flinched when their eyes met, and her head immediately lowered.

"So, it's true then."

Her failure to meet his gaze was confirmation enough.

Hinata kept her head down, unable to do much else as she could not remember how to work her voice. With her head so low, she could see her brother's balled up fists trembling in her peripheral vision.

"I can't believe this." Neji said after a few more moments of tense silence, turning to leave.

"N-Ni-san! Wait a-"

"You disappoint me, Hinata."

Hinata froze mid-step, her arms falling limply at her sides. A gust of wind blew past, blowing their hair and clothes around. Hinata remained rooted to her spot, watching as her brother walked away.

"He'll be fine. Just needs to blow off some steam." Naruto assured. "But what was up with that?!"

Hinata was silent, even as Naruto launched into a rant about how 'uncool that was' and how Neji was 'overreacting'.

"Hinata! Hello!" Hinata hadn't realised she had zoned out until Naruto shook her shoulders. When had he come to stand in front of her?

"Are you okay?" he asked, concerned.

Hinata blinked once, and then took a step back to remove herself from his personal space, nodding furiously as she blushed scarlet.

"I…am f-fine. Thank you for your c-concern, Naruto." She said softly, bending to pick up her ball. "But, I am f-fine."

"Are you sure?" he pressed.

Hinata nodded. "Yes. I am sure. I have to go now." She paused, and then looked back to him. "I'll see you later..N-Naruto." She said, smiling softly.

"O-kay…later..I guess." He replied uncertainly.

As Hinata walked away slowly, Naruto stood there, blinking dumbly after her. "What the heck just happened?" he asked no one.

In her head, Hinata had only one thought as she walked away:

How am I going to fix this AND survive the gala after tomorrow?

* * *

**Author notes:**

**Myomi-chan:** So exciting, ne? Hopefully I can start sending Chelty the chapters back once I'm done with my part... (Yes, the lack of updates is my fault, not Chelty's. Sorry! Life, y'know?) Everyone, who's ready for a PARTAY, cuz it's comin' up! XD Review please! :D

**Chelty-chan**: It wasn't just Myomi trust me, we've both just been swamped with school and other stuff BUT my two month winter break from school is coming up soon, hopefully we can update faster then! Review my pretties! For the gala is happening NEXT CHAPTER!...we hope…maybe…we'll see…XD reviews please?


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